AS it was generally admitted that the speaking on this night had never
been exceeded in wit and humor, and for its cordiality towards a famous
Englishman, at any of the Lotos dinners, I make no apology for printing
portions of the other addresses. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, General Porter,
and ex-Mayor Oakey Hall, have long since made distinct reputations
for themselves as American orators. At an English dinner men speak
to set toasts. In America they are called upon, frequently without
warning, to speak to a sentiment, or “to say a few words.” It was in
this fashion that the speakers at the Irving banquet were brought into
the extemporized programme, and with the most agreeable results. Mr.
Chauncey M. Depew, being asked by the chairman to speak, rose promptly,
amidst the clouds of many Havanas, and said:—
“Mr. President,—The best criticism that was made upon the speech of
our guest to-night was, ‘He talks like an American.’ I am sure that
this memorable night will be recollected from the fact that, in the
midst of the din of wars and contests and controversies about us, this
is simply a peaceful tribute on behalf of this club to one of the
chief and most devoted of the exponents of the drama. We have welcomed
to this country recently many eminent Englishmen, and among them Lord
Coleridge, whom we were glad to see and to honor, both for what he is
and what he represents. We have received, at the same time with Mr.
Irving, Matthew Arnold, and, while as a great thinker we give him
welcome, we warn him that orthodoxy has for him its scalping-knife
sharp, and that the theological hatchet is thirsting for his gore.
(Laughter.)
“The whole town is in a din and furore with the operatic war, and
tenors are peeping over high ‘C’s’ to get at each other, while
sopranos are hauled before the courts. (Laughter.) Mapleson walks
around with the chip on his shoulder, and Abbey calls upon the police
to prevent him from hurting somebody. (Laughter.)
“But, while this controversy rages, we meet here to-night, with one
voice and one accord, to welcome the most eminent dramatic scenic
painter of this century and the most eminent English actor of this
generation. (Applause.) We have welcomed to this board many men from
beyond the seas, and while they have poured something into this vast
reservoir of intellectual wealth, we have done more for them. Lord
Houghton asserts that his health and longevity after his reception
here were largely due to the fact that he learned at this place the
way to longevity by a cheap and frugal meal. (Laughter.) From this
board Sullivan arose to become a knight. (Laughter and applause.) We
are all of us familiar with the oratory which usually characterizes an
expression of the relations between the old country and the new. There
is nothing better known in the whole range of eloquence than that
which refers to the interdependent relations, in respect to literature
and science and art, between America and England. While this chord is
familiar there is one string which is not often touched, and that is
the debt we owe to the English thinkers, Huxley, Tyndall, and Darwin,
who have created the shibboleth, known in all the schools of America,
that evolution is the great principle of modern science.
“While the most of us believe in evolution in theory, in practice we
have seen it only upon the stage. The Englishman, from whom our Yankee
inherits commercial instincts, saw our want and supplied it. First he
sent to us Lydia Thompson and her troupe. (Laughter.) And then the
shrewd Englishman sent us ‘Pinafore.’ We were at first fascinated,
then charmed, and then annihilated. We could stand ‘Pinafore’ for six
hundred consecutive nights in all the theatres, to the exclusion of
everything else; in the parlor, upon the piano, in the school-room, on
the hurdy-gurdy and on the hand-organ; but when the church choir could
do nothing else, then there rose a cry for relief from one end of
this country to the other. (Great laughter.) The like of that cry has
never been heard since the children of Israel sought to escape from
Egypt. (Renewed laughter.) Then, in recognition of his great service,
Queen Victoria summoned the author to her presence, and said to him:
‘For one hundred years I have sought to subdue those children of ours
beyond the seas, but without avail; but for your grand success arise
and take your place with the knights of armor.’ (Great laughter.)
“There is nothing which more clearly indicates the development of this
American people from provincialism and its bigotry than the welcome
given to Macready, and that which we accord to Irving. To secure a
hearing for Macready required that the soldiery should march with
fixed bayonets and shotted guns, while the blood of the mob poured
through the gutter. But now the American people have developed into a
recognition of the fact that to be a great people they must adopt that
catholicity that embraces men all over the world; that, while they may
believe in Protection for textile fabrics and manufactures, there must
be Free Trade in genius. (Applause.)
“We hail, with the gladdest acclaim and heartiest welcome, the German
Barnay, the Italian Salvini, and the English Irving, because we wish
to have the best the world has of art in any of its departments, and
because we want to show them that their success is incomplete until
they have passed the ordeal of American criticism. (Applause.) The
very best tribute of recent times to the sentiment of right-minded
men of culture and intelligence on both sides of the Atlantic,
notwithstanding what demagogues may say, is that a London audience
crowded the house and rose to the highest enthusiasm to greet the
appearance, and applaud the acting, of the American, Edwin Booth
(Applause); and its counterpart will be the reciprocity manifested by
the American people in crowding the house and applauding the acting
of Henry Irving. (Applause.) Still, in illustration of the same
idea, while London renders her most generous tribute to the beauty
and genius of Mary Anderson, we here, with an equal chivalry, will
receive with our best loyalty that beautiful, charming, and genial
woman, that brilliant actress, that great genius, Ellen Terry.” (Great
applause.)
General Horace Porter, being called up by the President, assured the
company that he was really not prepared to speak. He said he felt
considerably embarrassed. His audience evidently did not believe him,
and he amply justified their scepticism. In an easy, conversational
manner he said:—
“I do not even feel that security which was enjoyed by Daniel in
the lions’ den, for he had the comfortable assurance that as these
animals had their original programme, although he might be eaten,
it was not likely that he would be called upon for an after-dinner
speech. (Laughter.) But if there is any stimulus which can arouse the
most sluggish mind it has been abundantly furnished to-night by the
finished and chaste address which has fallen from the lips of our
distinguished guest. He has shown us to-night how well qualified he
is to furnish us with that dish which I know is so much relished in
his own country,—after-dinner tongue garnished with brains. Standing,
as we do, in the presence of so distinguished a representative of
that profession which is accustomed to speak the carefully prepared
words of the dramatists, I would not be surprised to hear our guest
say, in the language of Romeo to Juliet in the balcony scene, as he
listens to my ill-considered words, ‘He speaks, yet he says nothing.’
(Laughter.) I hope Mr. Irving is beginning to understand that speech
is the peculiar form of insanity that comes upon the American mind
after dinner, and that here men keep silent only when they are
salivated. (Laughter.) Our guest, no doubt, begins to realize what
this martyrdom is. By the time he is ready to depart from us he will,
no doubt, have greater respect than ever before for the beneficence
of that Providence which has endowed us with two ears and only one
mouth, (Laughter.) But this martyrdom to-night does not seem to be
of the nature of the martyrdom of Charles I., for throughout it all
he has not lost his head. It seems to be rather that martyrdom of
Cranmer,—he has been so thoroughly toasted on every side. (Laughter.)
But there is one privilege that Mr. Irving must not expect to enjoy.
When German and French artists came here they enjoyed a special and
peculiar privilege; they were not able to understand a word that was
said by the speakers. (Laughter.)
“But I cannot sit down without saying a few words in all seriousness.
It is that this club considers that it enjoys a peculiar privilege in
having the distinguished guest of the night partaking of his first
family meal within our land in these walls. (Applause.) It has been a
cherished desire on the part of this club to press the cup of greeting
to his lips. We recognize in him the masterly interpreter of the
sublime works of that prince of dramatists whom both countries claim
as their own. He comes amongst us with a name that is no stranger to
our hearts. In his coming here I see the great delineator of romance
visiting the land of our most charming creator of romance,—Henry
Irving visiting the home of Washington Irving. The American people
feel under a deep sense of obligation to our guest, because when that
great representative of the American drama set foot upon foreign
shores the lips that gave him the warmest greeting, the hands that led
him to the boards of London’s most distinguished temple of the drama,
were those of Henry Irving. He shared equally with Booth the honors
of his own stage; and laid down the principle that has become a law,
which declares the path of ambition is never so narrow that two cannot
walk abreast upon it.
“It was my privilege a year ago to hear Mr. Irving in his own home. It
was my privilege to feast my vision upon the masterly creations of the
stage of the Lyceum. There one saw at once the reality of painting.
There the curtain rises upon absolute perfection. If I were asked
the secret of his success I should say it is owing to his constant
aspirations after the highest realms of dramatic art. I would that
words or deeds of mine could add to the warmth of the welcome he has
received.” (Loud applause.)
Dr. A. E. Macdonald, ex-Mayor A. Oakey Hall, Dr. Robert Laird Collier,
Mr. Joseph Jefferson, and other gentlemen, also responded to the
chairman’s call. Dr. Macdonald indulged in some good-humored sallies at
the expense of Mr. Depew. He also spoke of the New York press having
“only just arrived at a proper estimate of its true value,—the result
being a general reduction in price to two cents.” Mr. Oakey Hall,
referring to the many streets and buildings he had been officially
called upon to name, said, “I now, in memory of this night, declare
that the window recess in which our illustrious guest is sitting shall,
from henceforth, be known as ‘The Henry Irving!’” Mr. Jefferson said,
“Gentlemen, Charles Lamb is reported to have declared that there are
only two classes in the world,—one born to borrow, and the other to
lend. So do I think there are two classes of speech-makers,—one born
to get into it, the other to get out of it. I belong to the latter
crowd. Nevertheless on this occasion I rise cheerfully to do my best
among the born talkers. Mr. Irving must be getting tired of hearing
his name mentioned so often with words of welcome and admiration, and
I will only say that I join heartily in all the kind and worthy things
that have been said of him.”